A cash-strapped Sussex hospital spent more than £1,000 employing just one agency nurse for a 12-hour shift.

MP Nicholas Soames revealed the cost of employing the nurse on a bank holiday during a Commons debate on the merger of the NHS trusts which run the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath and the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.

Tory Mr Soames warned that the Princess Royal, run by Mid Sussex NHS Trust, was short of nurses and was heading for a deficit of £3.3 million this year.

The bill for employing agency nurses was £320,000 last year and was expected to reach £620,000 this year.

Meanwhile, the Royal Sussex County Hospital, run by Brighton Health Care NHS Trust, also had "doubts" over its finances.

Mr Soames insisted the merger be placed on hold or the new trust would be at a disadvantage "from day one".

He said: "It would be quite improper and, indeed, a serious failure of public policy for this merger to be launched without being fully-funded and thus being unable to undertake the very demanding tasks that it faces."

The MP said £1,018 had been spent employing the grade D nurse for a 12-hour shift last August bank holiday Monday.

It showed the need for extra nurses and the financial pressures the hospital was under.

He claimed the hospital was under-funded by up to £5 million a year and was being forced into the red.

This was a result of spending £538,000 per year on beds, for which the trust had received no funding, £500,000 on delayed transfers or "blocked beds", more than £1 million of unexpected extra costs, including drugs and nursing agency fees estimated to reach £620,000.

The sum spent on agency nurses was "unacceptable and unaffordable", Mr Soames said.

He concluded it was not "prudent or sensible" for the merger to take place without the financial affairs of both NHS trusts "being put straight", although he agreed with the move in principle.

Health minister Hazel Blears said there was no need for the trusts to have a "clean slate" prior to a merger and said it could go ahead. She denied Mid Sussex NHS Trust was under-funded and said at the beginning of the year it was forecasting a "break even" position.

The minister also pointed out that West Sussex Health Authority had received a funding increase of £231 million since 1997.

Brighton Health Care NHS Trust said it would pay an agency up to £350 per shift for a grade D nurse on a bank holiday.

Other city agencies said they charge between £300 and £400 a shift for bank holidays.

The Brighton trust says a large proportion of its overspend went on paying agency and bank staff.